Day 4

The Namesake Lesson Plan

Discussion of Thought Questions

1

What is unusual about the way that Lahiri portrays Ashoke's death?

(5 min)

Students may observe that the narration, like the narration of the rest of the book, seems simultaneously intimate and distant. Lahiri's tone doesn't change at all when describing Ashima's reaction to the news or Gogol's visit to Cleveland; she delivers these emotional moments as facts, specifically and without sentimentality. She describes all feelings as a series of actions and desires: Gogol thinks of his father, doesn't want to lie on the couch, pays attention to the light rather than "feeling" sad or distant or alienated. Actions are described, moments remembered, but Lahiri rarely even alludes to...

Gogol is the son of Ashima and Ashoke, named after the Russian author Nikolai Gogol. He changes his name to Nikhil the summer before starting college. He is "just shy of six feet tall, his body slender, his thick brown-black hair slightly in need...